NFL referee: Political attention helped end lockout

The national political outrage triggered by this week’s controversial Monday Night Football game — ledby President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney — ultimately helped get regular National Football League referees back to work, the officials’ top labor union negotiator tells POLITICO.

“It obviously captured the attention of everybody up to the top,” said Scott H. Green, a veteran NFL official and founder of Vienna, Va.-based public affairs firm Lafayette Group who represented the NFL Referees Association during the months-long lockout. “It’s like you have a bucket and you just keep filling it up, and finally, something just tips it over.”

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Monday night’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks also attracted the attention of politicians including GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and former President Bill Clinton, and the level of the lockout’s politicization surprised Green.

Green is now heading to Dallas to finalize details of an eight-year labor agreement struck late Wednesday and says he expects to himself don a zebra-striped jersey and take the field Sunday at a yet-to-be-named game.

The regular refs are slated to work their first game of the season Thursday night in Baltimore when the Ravens face the Cleveland Browns.

In Green’s nearly four decades working in and with government — his jobs have included working as special adviser to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and lobbying for public safety interest groups — this proved to be one of his most hard-fought battles, he said.

“It was pretty tough — this was a very small group, high pressure,” he said. “On the Hill, when you’re dealing with issues, there are a lot more people involved. You can run all over the Hill just trying to work on one little provision in a bill, and that’s your role.”

Green says that while “we didn’t get everything we wanted,” he’s particularly satisfied with preserving the refs’ pension program, which the league wanted to convert to a 401(k)-style retirement plan. Green’s team also negotiated a pay raise for officials, who are part-time NFL employees.

What also won’t be easy: Green’s referee brethren readying themselves for action again after missing the entire NFL preseason and three regular season games.

But they’ve been preparing the best they can, he says, including conducting regular study sessions and conference calls to review game rules and discuss the performance of replacement officials.

Most of the replacements has no prior NFL experience and had at best only refereed low-level college football before this year. Green says he feels for them and took no joy from their frequent, and decidedly high-profile blunders.

“They were in a tough situation, and it’s easy to understand why they had some of the problems they had,” he said, noting that NFL referees are typically the products of heavy recruiting and training, where only the best are selected.

Mainly, Green, who served as head referee in Super Bowl XLIV, is just glad to leave the negotiating table for the gridiron.

“We’re jumping in with both feet,” he said, “and I’m just looking forward to getting back on the field.”

The height of ludicracy was reached when the commissioner of the lingerie league, informed the public that some of the replacement officials working for the NFL, had been recently fired due to behaviour that was a detriment to their league.

This is exactly why we need Romney/ Ryan as our leaders. Everyone of the union members should be fired! Just a bunch of cry babies holding the owners hostage. They should consider themselves luck just to have a great position to watch the game. I just hope President Romney addresses these Bas@#@$ Jan. 2. 2013. Haven't the owners suffered enough!

The juxtaposition of posts is sometimes on point; Spam touting replica watches; the NFL using replica referees. Replica firearms are marked with red paint. Referees? Hmm. Even the COLOR is appropriate, if strike breakers are a GOP asset. Ouch.